How many people balance their checkbook

Throw another 50 bucks in ze account to be safe. According to StatisticBrain. For example, identity thieves may try to pass through a small transaction of just a few cents or dollars on your checking account to see whether it triggers a response.

If it goes unnoticed, they may try to dip into your account for a larger amount. Verifying your records can help avoid those kinds of scenarios. Although your bank processes thousands of transactions accurately, it can make mistakes, and you typically have only 60 days to inform the bank of the error.

Even more likely is the possibility that you made a math error in your checkbook register, which you're unlikely to find unless you balance your checkbook each month. If you make a mistake or forget to post an ATM withdrawal, debit card purchase, or other transaction in your checkbook register, you may start bouncing checks and incur overdraft , nonsufficient funds, or other fees.

If you don't correct the problem quickly, you can often incur a number of returned check fees or more than one fee for the same check if the person the check was written to re-deposits it right away in the hopes that your balance will now cover the sum.

Those fees can easily eat into your balance, potentially putting you in the red -- and in debt to the bank. If there is a problem at some point, it's much more difficult to wade through months of transactions to figure it out.

If you've balanced your checkbook every month, the most you'll ever have to do is look at the most recent month's transactions.

Sometimes people make such a mess of their checkbook by not regularly balancing that they have to close out their account and open another one. Unfortunately, the basic money management task of balancing our checkbooks is not taught in most schools and usually not taught by our parents. If you're just starting out on your own, or you have your first bank account , or you just never got in the habit of balancing your checkbook regularly, here are some easy to follow instructions for how to do it.

Figure out your current balance in checking, which your bank may list as your available or ending balance. You should be able to find this amount by checking using your online or mobile banking app.

Log this amount at the top of your checkbook register in the space indicated. Record any pending transactions in your checkbook register, including both debits and credits, as well as checks you've written that have not cleared yet. Include the date of the transaction, a description of the transaction, and the amount. If listing checks, also write down the check number. You swipe right to classify a trip as business or left to deem it personal. The app lets you assign a specific purpose, such as a commute between offices, customer visit, meeting, travel, etc.

Knowing what lenders are saying about you is important, since the information in your credit reports is used to set insurance premiums and utility deposits in addition to determining the rates and terms you get on loans.

Credit reports are also used by landlords and many employers. Not that long ago, you typically had to pay for copies of your credit reports and scores. It was a big step forward when the federally authorized website AnnualCreditReport.

NerdWallet and other personal finance sites offer free credit scores and reports updated monthly or even weekly. The credit reports tend to come from a single credit bureau, and typically the scores are VantageScores, which share a to scale with FICO scores and weigh the information in your credit reports similarly.

Capital One offers free VantageScores to anyone. You may still want to buy your scores from MyFico. Twitter: lizweston. The best budgeting apps out there link to your online accounts. As soon as your bank posts a transaction online pending or approved , your app knows it, too.

This is helpful if you use an ATM to deposit checks. Fraudulent charges are easy to catch. I can see every transaction of every bank account in one spot.

One evening I was checking Mint and noticed an extra sale at a gas station. I had bought gas earlier, but this was an extra charge and a different amount. I called my credit card company to dispute the extra charge and never went back to that gas station.

Within a day, I caught a fraudulent transaction before it became a serious problem. If you want to stop balancing your checkbook or you never learned how , here are your next steps:. The Old Way Without online banking, a check register is your best friend. Outstanding Checks Checks make paying bills a safe option, but the bank has no idea you have written a check. The New Way Online banking and apps make the check register obsolete.

Outstanding Checks Most budgeting apps link to your online accounts and update transactions automatically.